Walt Disney WorldA History in PostcardsChapter 9 Disney-MGM Studios Page 5
Sequels!
The combination of a lower capacity park along with the grand
opening promotions on TV (including a grand opening special on
NBC), and in magazines (including Time and Newsweek) kept the
park gates closing early all through that first summer three
months after opening the company announced that it would double
the size of the park by 1992. When a movie is very popular it
almost seems inevitable that a sequel will be made, so with a
park that had so many "sell out performances" it was only logical
that sequels would come along here too. In actuality much of the
expansion was already underway, due to the plans for the park
growing so much during the development of it. Also, in actuality
in those early years there were certainly some guests who came
away with the impression of the studios as a full price, but half
day park. The continuing development of the park has certainly
filled the days for many of those guests who had that initial
opinion of the studios. New attractions opened each year; The
Indiana Jones Stunt show opened August 25, 1989, it had ran a
show on opening day but that was a sort of dress rehearsal, that
doubled as a promotion for the opening of the park. Before the
end of the year, on December 15, Star Tours opened, the same
attraction had already debuted at Disneyland almost three years
previously, but received a beautiful new facade in its Disney-MGM
Studios Theme Park installation featuring an Ewok forest, a
Snowspeeder and an AT-AT (which stands for All Terrain Armored
Transport for those of you who are Star Wars acronym impaired out
there). If you stand on the walkway near the AT-AT and wait a few
moments you will see that the "laser canons" of the AT-AT work
back forth as if firing from time to time (complete with sound
effects. In fact, in the hot summer months you may want to watch
just where you stand when you view this effect as those "laser
cannons" become a giant pair of super soakers spraying water when
the cannons go into firing mode.
0100-71977 The Moon of
Endor0100-70998 The famous cloud
city of Bespin

0100-70999 At exciting
Tatooine
May 16th 1991, another attraction joined these early expansion
efforts at the studios, Jim Henson's Muppetvision 3-D, this
humorous special effect laden attraction opened a year to the day
after Jim Henson died.

On with the Show(s!)

November 22,1981 one of the great Disney animated classic movies
opened in theatres (it had a premiere Nov. 13 before in New York
City), Beauty and the Beast, but that was not the only place it
opened that day...it also opened at the Disney-MGM studios that
same day. It did not open in the same theatre we all know today,
well... the theatre had the same name, The Theatre of the Stars,
but it was much smaller, had an uncovered seating area, and was
located where the beginning of Sunset Boulevard now is. Beauty
and the Beast was not the only show to play that theatre, before
Beauty and the Beast played that venue, a show called Hollywood's
Pretty Woman (presumably based on the movie that came out the
previous year) played there for about a month, there may have
been other shows in the theatre before that. The relocation of
that theatre was preceded by the building of the Backlot theatre
this allowed the Beauty and the Beast show to relocate to that
theatre while work continued on their new home. That "new home"
wasn't just constructed to give BatB a bigger venue to play, but,
as part of that larger plan to expand the studios the "Street"
that was added to the park Sunset Boulevard is now home to four
of the biggest draws at the studio the aforementioned Beauty and
the Beast, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Rocking Roller
coaster featuring Aerosmith, and Fantasmic! this nighttime
spectacular featuring scenes from various Disney movies
re-enacted as a part of Mickey's dream, plays in Walt Disney
Worlds largest theatre, The Hollywood Hills Amphitheater seats
6,900 with another 3000 guests in standing room for each show.
But those last three are a story for another chapter.In this picture the The Theatre of the Stars
sits in its original location Clicking the picture will
take you to a slightly larger version of it, or, if you want to
see a really huge version of it click this link. This image was not
from a postcard I scanned it from the 1998 Hardcover souvenir
book where it was printed reversed (the far left was the far
right and visa- versa).

That Backlot theatre, I mentioned earlier, the one where
Beauty played while their new home was under construction, had
other shows as well, The Spirit of Pocahontas played there in
1995 and part of 1996, but on June 21, 1996 a new Show opened
there The Hunchback of Notre Dame, it became very popular, and
developed such a fan base that rather that rotating in a new show
that might help promote the next Disney Movie (Hercules), the
show continued to run... for six more years. This show combined
great singing, puppetry, well designed sets, and great use of the
space available in the theatre, to provide a truly special
experience, one that for many of us will always shine brightly as
a fondly remembered show. Even the Voyage of The Little Mermaid,
which opened in The Walt Disney Theatre January 7,1992, was not
the first show in its' venue, previous to that "Here Comes the
Muppets" played there from May 25, 1990 to Sept. 2, 1991, and
before that it had been used as the "preview theatre" at the end
of the studio walking tour.